Book Review: Phantom (Dark Musicals #1) by Laura DeLuca

I went through a stage of my life, right before college, where I was absolutely obsessed with Phantom of the Opera. It started with the movie that had Gerard Butler as the Phantom which led to reading the original novel, then Phantom by Susan Kay, and eventually having the pleasure of watching the musical on Broadway a couple of times.

I wanted a new interpretation of the novels with a high school twist, a character just as distorted and flawed as Erik but with more modern problems. I wanted the beauty of the prose of Susan Kay's Phantom with the wonderful storytelling of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera but in the end, I was more disappointed than a child opening a Cracker Jack box and there not being a toy inside. 

First: the blurb from Goodreads since I'm not going to bother writing one

The “Phantom” was a musical phenomenon that Rebecca had always found enchanting. She had no idea that her life was about to mirror the play that was her obsession. When her high school drama club chooses “Phantom” as their annual production, Rebecca finds herself in the middle of an unlikely love triangle and the target of a sadistic stalker who uses the lines from the play as their calling card. 

Rebecca lands the lead role of Christine, the opera diva, and like her character, she is torn between her two co-stars—Tom the surfer and basketball star who plays the lovable hero, and Justyn, the strangely appealing Goth who is more than realistic in the role of the tortured artist. 

Almost immediately after casting, strange things start to happen both on and off the stage. Curtains fall. Mirrors are shattered. People are hurt in true phantom style. They all seem like accidents until Rebecca receives notes and phone calls that hint at something more sinister. Is Justyn bringing to life the twisted character of the phantom? Or in real life are the roles of the hero and the villain reversed? Rebecca doesn’t know who to trust, but she knows she’s running out of time as she gets closer and closer to opening night. Only when the mask is stripped away, will the twenty first century phantom finally be revealed.

 Alright...I should have known better from the blurb.

I am pretty much over most high school drama, mostly because my experience was incredibly different from a lot of these characters' that you read these days. I went to a small school with a graduating class of 55. Most of us were in the same classes for 8 years together so you sort of learn to live in harmony. Are other high schools this horrible where kids are attacking each other in the hallway and there are catfights and challenges being thrown about like confetti?

Anyways, Rebecca is one of those girls who has never done anything special in her life and then suddenly decides to try out for the main role of her favorite musical. She (of course) lands the role of a lifetime with Christine and she thinks that she connects to the character in a special way. After all, she has spent her life in the high school equivalent of the chorus dancers, staying out of the way and trying not to do anything to gather attention but she can't pass up this opportunity.

So she gets the role, pisses off the popular girl, gets the popular boy Tom to finallyOMG notice her and then the creepy goth guy shows up and steals all of attention. Justyn has a beautiful voice but a tendency towards lurking in the corners and singing lines from the musical to her. Carmen and Debbie, her best friends, think that he's strange and urge Rebecca to stay away from him but she can't resist him and finds herself drawn to him.

Tom, who is supposed to be the basketball player who surfs with an awesome voice is the most over done character I've seen in my life. He's supposed to be perfect and blonde and pretty and oh wait...

I've seen this character before somewhere! I wonder where...

Moving onto Justyn. The goth boy with inconsistent character descriptions. He was originally described with facial piercings, eyeliner and black lipstick. He wears fishnet shirts and chains on his boots. Now, with my obsession over KPOP, I've gotten over most reservations about guyliner but the black lipstick is too much. There was some hazing at my college where the girls in sororities made the pledges wear black lipstick so if they made out with a guy at a party, everybody would know. Sorry, but black lipstick + making out + creepy character role = taking it too far. 

And he loves his cape and takes every opportunity to hide in the corner and lurk. He takes himself too seriously and fucking calls himself LORD JUSTYN I SHIT YOU NOT. 

Not only that, but randomly the author decides to insert that he is Wiccan into the plot. It does nothing to further the plot but seems to be there just to make him a little bit more different and make it so that his mother won't take him to the hospital when he breaks his ribs. I'm all for natural healing but I'm speaking from personal experience that when you break your ribs, it fucking hurts. It is difficult to sleep, especially if you break them on your side and a little bit of willow bark tea is not going to help much as far as pain scale goes. Take him to the hospital and get him some decent medication and treatment so the boy can sleep!

THIS BOOK WAS TERRIBLE.

Want some quotes? Well, you're getting them anyways. Prepare yourself...

"Why are you so nervous, Becca?" Carmen Webber asked. "You've got to be the only person in the school who's had the entire script memorized since kindergarten. Besides, you have an amazing voice. You're going to be fine. Really!"

 I hate teenybopper pep talks, especially as an introduction. Off to a bad start.

"He's the stagehand the Phantom kills right before the intermission. He gets hung."

 Being hung is something completely different than being hanged. I get that they're in high school but the editor should have caught that.

"I'm not the one who's been upstaged by some usurping loser from the geek squad."

 Ahahahaha...I miss insults like these. It's like all the old teen movies are coming back to laugh at the modern world.

"The phantom always used a noose to kill his victims."

 No...he used a Punjab lasso that was utilized like a garrote. Educate yourself.

"I can't believe you two would actually read that dribble on purpose."

 This is dribbling. The word you are looking for is drivel.

"I've put up with your crap for long enough, Wendy. The jibes. The looks. The nasty comments. Well, I've had it. It stops now. I got the role of Christine. I have the better voice. And you have been upstaged. Get over it and get on with your life. Being a bitch isn't going to change things."

 Ugh, sassy standing up for yourself is soooooooo two thousand and late.

"His one cataract eye was oblique and almost glowing"

 Did you even try to edit this thing? Your eye can't be oblique. Cataracts can make your eyes opaque though.

"Willow bark is just a plant."

No, it is the bark off of a willow tree which is where aspirin is derived from. As stated earlier, if you have fallen and broken your ribs, you are going to want a little bit more than some diluted aspirin tea.

"I heard he hung himself in the bathroom stall."

 HANGED. He hanged himself. You can't "hung" yourself. It is grammatically incorrect and therefore impossible.

All of this is before even considering the plot, which felt like it was *insert yourself here* fanfiction. Rebecca has no obvious flaws besides being so stupid that you wonder who ties her shoelaces every morning. Her friends are bitchy and have an opinion about everybody and everything. Debbie is described as the scary Amazon (which I personally take offense to) and doesn't stand up for herself through the entire book. Tom and Justyn fighting over her is the most played out plot line ever and the bitchy horrible Wendy is the most stereotypical mean girl I've ever seen.

I honestly cannot fathom how this thing is rated so high on Goodreads. A 4.05? Are you fucking kidding me? The author can't even call the musical by its proper name, doesn't credit the quotes that she used correctly and spells Andrew Lloyd Webber's name incorrectly at the start of the book. For a fan of Phantom of the Opera, it sucked at being a good tribute to the work.

There are two redeeming qualities from this book. The plot twist was unexpected (but not well written). I can honestly say it surprised me. The other is that it has made me want to find some good Phantom of the Opera literature and reread Phantom and the original novel.

So skip this one. Don't come near it. I've more than warned you. If you are an avid fan of Phantom of the Opera you will be excessively disappointed.

Book Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Do you ever read a book and you aren't emotionally ready to talk about it for a while? The feelings, confusion, plot, characters, and twists all roll around in your head for days and you just can't figure out how to explain yourself without just going down the route of "Just go read this book. You won't regret it at all." I've been lingering over this book. Parts of it have me thoroughly confused and I am not quite sure how to attack it but I'm going to do my best.

Me during this entire book

Let's start with one part Science Fiction (since the book opens in Mars) and add a healthy dose of The Hunger Games and then blend on high, slowly adding a bit of The Way of Kings for military strategy and end with a dollop of dead puppy book and you have Red Rising.

I usually cannot stand science fiction books, especially the ones that are set in space. I never liked Star Wars or Star Trek. The only space movie I've ever liked it Spaceballs and that's because it made fun of everything. 

Ludicrous speed! GO!

So when I got into the first third of the book and they were talking about digging for Helium3 on Mars, I was skeptical and nearly DNF-ed it a few times. 

The first 35% is about rebellion. It's about sticking it to the man and pushing back. Darrow is a young man, only 16, who works as a Helldiver in the underground caves of Mars. It's the most dangerous job on the planet and you have to be quick, brave, strong, and a little bit cocky to do it. Darrow is all of these things and he makes it home every night so he can be with his equally young wife, Eo.  The Helium3 they are mining for is to restore the surface of Mars so that it is able to be inhabited by others. 

“Things are set in stone. Things are well ordered. Reds at the bottom, everyone else standing on our backs. Now you're looking at me and you're realizing that we don't bloodydamn like it down there. Red is rising, Mickey.”

Darrow is a Red, the lowest on the totem pole and is told that he is doing a great service for future generations. But there is more happening on Mars than just digging and when Darrow finds out, he is thrust into the world of Golds in the hopes of being able to usurp power and start a rebellion.

“Man cannot be freed by the same injustice that enslaved it.”

That's when things change in the book.

As I said, the first third is one book. The other two thirds are something completely different.

“We come as princes and this school is supposed to teach us to become beasts. But you came a beast."

Darrow sets out to infiltrate the commander training school of the Golds and establish himself in a position of power. This school is a huge battle simulation that is controlled by aristocrats where other kids his age are all set against each other in a fight to control the entire arena. It's huge. It's terrifying. There are dozens of other students and while it is meant to be a largely non-lethal affair, it doesn't turn out that way. There are pitched battles, back room plots, betrayals, starving students, and lessons of war.

See what I mean? If it was two separate books, I'd throw out the first bit and go with the second. It was too sharp of a turn for me to follow and I'm still confused about the differences of class and the distinctions between them. Does Darrow actually have wings and do they work? Is the biggest difference size or intellect? What happens if a Gold were to marry someone lower than them?

It's like two different worlds were constructed in this book and I understand the point of it, I just wish there was a better transition between them.

Darrow is a great character though. He clearly grows in more ways than one and fights the dark side of the Force his own demons in order to achieve his goals. Darrow takes some time to recognize his shortcomings which was an important step for his character. He was the top of the top on Mars and he was thrown into this completely different society where he is remarkably average as far as skills, size, and wits go. But Darrow has his history and that makes him stronger and he has a goal and that makes him dangerous.

“You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do.”

 The supporting characters play just as big of a role as Darrow does. Mustang and Sevro are wonderfully written and are made believable. I love that it isn't all about Darrow and the other characters show him up on a regular basis. He isn't the smartest one there and he isn't the strongest but his alliances with others give him an advantage. They aren't out for glory either and they understand the point of the game and don't let it get to their heads. I love it when a character has good friends.

Good gravy this book is hard to rate. It has awesome elements and is a great story line but it also has some flaws that hold it back. There is too big of a jump from the first third of the book to the last part and it felt like it was trying to do what The Hunger Games accomplished but simply didn't make it. The transition from oppression to fighting for your life was too rapid and it needed more development. A few more chapters in the middle would have bumped it up to a 5 star but it didn't quite reach for me.

It's about survival and tenacity. It's about knowing who your friends are. This book rewards the bold but punishes everybody. Nobody comes out of this book unscathed and that's awesome. It's terrifying and disjointed. 

Just go read it. You will either love it or hate it but it's definitely worth the experience.

Book Review: The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

These books are driving me crazy. Absolutely out of my mind insane (but I guess that's the point?) Do you ever get into a book and slowly realize that you are going to form a weird love/hate relationship with it?  Something will inevitably frustrate you about the plot/writing/characters but you know you will be moving on to the next one in the series.  That is this series for me.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer is not just a suspense/thriller novel, nor is it a typical YA/NA paranormal romance or a book exploring the depths of psychological issues. It's all of that rolled into one and while the premise of this series is awesome and unique, this one dragged on and on for the first half.

Let's look at that cover. This is perfection of a cover defined. There is movement, there is direction, there is a sense of what is going on in the book. Noah and Mara are reaching for each other but are completely incapable of touching and making that connection. They are so close but there is still that void between them. Covers are important because, in a lot of cases, they are what make you pick out that book on the shelf in the store and this one is completely effective for that purpose.

Mara is having problems to say the least. She is in a mental institution with a lot of people who are crazier than her (in her opinion) and trying to figure out her own problems along with that. Noah Shaw is as heartbreakingly attractive as ever and is walking temptation. Except that Mara is dangerous and can't be trusted, according to her parents and Dr. Kells, her new doctor who seems a little too happy to have another patient under her wing. Her only solace is that she isn't alone in all of this crap with Noah helping her and one friend, Jamie, in her new crazy people school.

Mara is told that she is hallucinating her dead ex-boyfriend but she knows what she sees is real. But who would believe her? Her parents are hovering, her brother is trying to help and Mara is desperately clinging to some sense of normalcy in order to maintain a relationship with Noah.

“Everyone is a little crazy. The only difference between us and them is that they hide it better.”

And then, as things do, everything spirals out of control.

Mara and Noah develop well in this book and you see their strength as a couple grow in a significant way.  They are both flawed people who have tendencies towards manipulation and compulsive lying but as a couple, they work together well.  They have each other's best interests at heart and that is what makes them endearing. 

Noah can grate on your nerves but I can understand his irascibility. I mean, the poor boy was essentially abandoned by his father and left in a gilded cage where he is expected to put on a nice smile and be the front man for the family. Mara is trying to convince people that she is seeing someone that is legally dead. (I am forever grateful that there was no mention of The Sixth Sense in this book.) So we have a boy with abandonment issues and a girl that is reaching out for anybody to believe her. They connect and they help fill the sad emptiness in each other's lives. They believe in each other and it's easy to forget that they are only seventeen. Their desperation for a solution is real and Mara feels so helpless throughout the story. Pretty damn heartbreaking.

"I can't slay her dragon because I can't find him, so for now I stay close. It's not enough."

I'm going to be honest, the first half of this book was an utter drag. There was too much time spent on trying to figure things out without there being any significant action. It was designed to highlight Mara's growing frustration of being completely sane but being trapped in a situation where nobody believes her. (OMG, Cassandra? Is that you?) I can't imagine the anger that would build up over time where everybody around you is writing in notebooks and coloring and you are trying to figure out why you keep killing people.

I can't imagine. I'd lose my mind. Mara deals with it surprisingly well. I'd be in the bathroom puking up the pills they gave me and probably end up running naked through the streets yelling "THE END IS NEAR!" But no, Mara and Noah tackle things systematically and try to solve what the hell is going on. And that's what makes this book worth it.

“You will love him to ruins.”

I can overlook the trope of having a stunningly attractive British asshole for a male romantic lead. I can look over the overwritten journal entries and the dream sequences. I can even ignore the first half of the book where I was about to not finish my very first book in over a decade. The second part of this makes this story worth the read and I'm actually looking forward to the final installment in the trilogy.

“Boys are stupid and girls are trouble.”
Truer words were never spoken.”

The plot twists, the drama and the ending...it was wonderful. It was exciting and I was cheering for Mara and Noah. For a second there, I had actually started to believe that Mara was insane and she was imagining it all but I was proven gloriously wrong. 

But, this book is still stuck at 3.5 stars for me. You have to charge through the first half in order to make up for the second. It gets better! I promise! Just suck it up and know that there is something really good to look forward to at the end.

Have y'all read this book/series? What did you think?

Book Review: Keepers & Killers by Donna Augustine (The Alchemy Series #2)

Keepers & Killers is the second book in the Alchemy Series by Donna Augustine.  It picks up a few months after the first book ends and this is where the shit really hits fan.

It starts with another pretty cover, showing Jo again, this time in what I call her "poker outfit".  She has been working at the casino for a few months now and has picked up the habit of gambling with the high rollers.  She makes money by operating a wormhole into the other worlds in the basement of The Lacard which she is now pretty good at, despite her rough start.

The Bad Guy

The character of Senator Core was introduced in the last book but he becomes the real villain in this one.  He is not what he seems on the outside, a classy suave politician and is something much worse.  Nobody knows what though.  I like how the author gives the reader someone to hate.  In the last book, it wasn't exactly as cut and dry since Jo was still learning so much about the world she had been dragged into. Senator Core is the perfect evil man.

He causes a lot of heartache and pain in Jo's life, something that she never thought she would feel again.  She had cut herself off from everyone and pushed Cormac away emphatically but Core manages to cut her deep.  He goes after her past and her old friends and foster families.  Since he can't hurt her physically, he attacks her emotionally.

Moving on

Things escalate quickly, especially after a prophecy from the last book becomes startlingly relevant.  Even then though, Jo and Cormac have time to bicker and ignore the sexual tension between them.

"Are you calling me slow?" "More like idiot savant"

I honestly love the immaturity of it all.  Cormac is above that and is hundreds of years old but he still loves pushing Jo's buttons and she is just as bad.  She insults him, pushes him away, yells at him, insults him some more and yet still finds him incredibly sexy.  He is obviously attracted to her but there is no force behind his affections.  He is controlled and doesn't push her beyond what she can handle and he lets her make her own decisions.

"Between the shooting and now the hitting, I'm starting to harbor some suspicions about what era you people really come from.  Chemists, my ass."

 I mean, he steals her trailer.  He basically imprisons her just to piss her off (and really to watch out for her. He is after all, a good guy.)  Cormac shows that he has a little bit of the gentleman in him and a little bit of the caveman too.  He always seems to be constrained by having to act like he is normal but as Jo points out, he has a somewhat uncivilized manner to him and that is what makes him so strong and intimidating.

Jo grows a lot in this book and I appreciate that this is sort of like a coming of age story inside of a science fiction novel.  She realizes that she is the only person that can really fix what is going on with the wormholes malfunctioning and the weird prophecy about her.  Jo has to come out of the her bunker against other people and accept that she is part of something bigger than herself.  She has a moral responsibility to help.  This growth is necessary because she has to overcome her inclination to avoid feelings and move forward with her relationships, not only with Cormac but also his henchmen, Buzz and Dodd, who become close friends and her old friend, Lacey, who Cormac is using as a weapon against her.  Jo feels her walls crumbling and finally sees that she has to let them fall.

Action and Adventure

Keepers & Killers does not fall to the second book syndrome and takes a massive step forward with the plot.  It almost turns into a horror story by the end when everything starts falling apart.  The characters do not remain in Las Vegas and the readers can see whole scale destruction in a new way.  I frankly haven't read anything like this as far as apocalypses go.  It's a good one.  But this is only the second in the series and the worst is yet to come.  The character building that happens in this book is necessary to support all of the chaos that is to come, foreshadowed by the ending here.

"Welcome to our new universe."

5/5 stars.